A critical review of local and world news. This blog originally commented on the Moncton Times and Transcript but has enlarged its scope.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Dec. 21: Dynamite on page one?

Or fluff?

"Oil, gas industry facing roadblock." says the headline. It seems there are problems in disposing of toxic waste water - you know the stuff filled with secret chemicals for fracking. What a surprise!

What Alberta has been doing with a similar problem is dumping it in lakes or simply creating artificial lakes for the stuff. It's easy to recognize them. Those are the lakes full of dead fish with dead birds littering the shorelines.

So we have no place to put it, and nobody will take it. Gee! Funny how prof. Lapierre missed that. Funny how the whole damn government missed it. But Mr. Leonard is confident a solution will be fouond. So that takes care of that problem.

The disposal of waste was, from the start, an obvious problem that a child could have foreseen. But a government, the one with the "toughest regulations in the world" didn't. And its expert's didn't. And none of these "information" sessions with government and industry mentioned it.

The people in charge of this programme, government and industry are liars who are willing to put lives at risk or they are asses. I'm not yet sure where to put my money on that one.

And if they don't have a proven solution for New Brunswick, then they don't have it anywhere in the world that fracking is going on; and they are spreading whole regions with poison for this, the only planet we have.

And this is the province in which, when people demonstrated against what was being done to our lands and our homes, the government and SWN sent hundreds of police with clubs and with combat rifles to beat them back.

Mind you, we will almost certainlly have letters to the editor from the wise folk who write such letters telling us not to worry. It's all a plot by environmentalists. The letter writers might want to pause to glance at the Los Angeles Times for Dec. 13, 1013. Studies in Colorado have shown the waste water from fracking contains chemicals that cause birth defects, infertility, and cancer. They also damage hormones.

Meanwhile, perhaps the Irving press might look back to the Dr. Cleary report, and this time, tell us truthfully what it says. (But the Irving press won't. We can be sure of that.)

If this story is accurate, then the leaders for fracking have been either fools or ruthlessly greedy killers....

....or....

This is a clever bit of strategy.

This is a story that's going to break, anyway. So the Irving press decides to play just-pretend-honest, make itself look pure - then later break a story (probably false) that the problem has been solved. The chances that it will be solved so close to being 'discovered' are nil.

But think about it. The chances of the TandT being honest on this question are zero. After all, this is the paper that said poor Prof Lapierre was being picked on. It has lied every step of the way. So why would it tell the truth now?

Well, because it's going to get out anyway. So now, it might be wise to watch out for the big story that the problem is solved..
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Though far the most dangerous confrontation for the world - the most dangerous in all of human history - is going on between the US and China, it just isn't important enought to make the Irving press.

In the US, it's being covered with propaganda. There, people are told the confrontation is happening because of the US fears that China might harm small nations near it. (Gee! The US would never do that. Look at how good it is to Haiti and Guatemala.)

The reality is this. The US has been empire building since the day it began. It has, over the years, invaded well over 200 countries. It has been in wars now for the longest single stretch in its history, and it has troops, drones or assassionation squads active in over a hundred countries.

In the 1990s, American busines and political leaders declared THE AMERICAN CENTURY of American military dominance of the whole world in order to dominate the world economies. (Funny the Irving press has never mentioned that document. It's on the web, has been since the 1990s.)

The US now fears two things. China will beat it to gaining markets and resources in Africa, thus the massive UN military presences in Africa, the destruction of Libya and Syria, and the almost-certain war with Iran.

The other fear is that the Chinese economy will so far outstrip the American one that American capitalists will be left hopelessly behind - and with China in a position to destroy American big business simply by refusing to lend the US any more money.

That's why the greater part of the American navy is now in Pacific waters. That's why the US has established a huge military base in Australia, with dozens of others in the region. That's why Japan has been allowed, all these years after WW2, to rebuild its military power. That's why the US troops now "providing aid" to The Phillipines are not likely to leave. That's why the US navy constantly patrols the coast of China.

But the US cannot beat China in a conventional war. So.....

It's an open secret that the US has plans for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on China's arsenal - the only way it can win a war with China.

That's why China is getting nervous, and has been making claims about the extent of its territorial authority.

This is the story of the century. But it's not important enough for the TandT - even though we will be in it. (Everybody will be.)

Of course, it can't be the fault of the US. It has never started wars. It's just that it's alway being attacked by those awful, smaller countries like Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, Libya, Iraq, Grenada, Vietnam..... Why won't they leave the US alone?

The Faith Page, as always, completely ignores what Jesus talked about and how it has meaning in our time, to tell us harmless little stories guaranteed not to offend man or beast.

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Norbert has another rant - this time about light bulbs. Everybody, it seems, is stupid - except Norbert.

Some sloppy editing on the editorial page. There's a column with Alex Bruce's picture on it, but signed by "Bill" Beliveau. Whoever, wrote it, it's an unusually interesting one about the need to create a much, much bigger Moncton. Well worth a read.

Brent Mazerolle has an interesting idea, too - about a work of art that would memorialize the role of Moncton as a major centre for the Commonewath Air Training Plan - something that was far more important in winning World War 2 than most people realize.

Ideally, I'd like to see in in the form of a rebuilt base. (I remember, many years ago, passing an abandoned airfield not far from Moncton. I suspect it was a remnant of CATP. With some military aircraft of the period, expectially the omnipresent Harvard trainer and a recording of the distinctive wail of its engine,, it would be an interesting place.

And a very interesting and thoughtful column by Brian Murphy on the Ashley Smith case.
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The letter to the editor "All that is sacred has disappeared" is an understandable lament for the decline of religous symbols in public places like hospitals. But I differ very much with a closing line, "We Christians have to sacrifice our religious beliefs for the minority."

Nonsense.

1. We don't have to sacrifice our religious beliefs for anybody. There's nothing about not having a cross handy that sacrifices any beliefs. And the idea that society has to provide religious symbols wherever you want them is bizarre, and has nothing to do with belief.

2. I see little evidence that the majority of people in Moncton (or in the western world in general) are Christian. We are the world's worst aggressors and killers. We support an economic system based on greed, exploitation and violence. We let our own people go hungry - except for one day a year.

3.I see little religious belief in the Christian churches - except when it some to cutesie bits like a baby in a manger, or discussing the "magic" parts like whether the streets of the New Jerusalem are really gold. It is almost unheard of for Christians to discuss our behaviour (which is mostly what Jesus talked about). We sent soldiers to kill Afghanis for reasons that still aren't clear. I don't recall hearing any great Christian outcry about this. Indeed, we sent over chaplains to tell the soldiers, among other things, that they were doing a great job.

It's true, though, that all that is sacred (or much of it) has disappeared. But it's not pieces of wood,etc. that are sacred. It's the word. And the word has disappeared because the churches don't talk about it much. Chrck your Faith page.

"liars who are willing to put lives at risk or they are asses"or ....both of the aforementioned conditions , plus, "the leaders for fracking have been both fools and ruthlessly greedy killers" Leonard sickens me. Such a transparent fool. They say every man has their price. I don't pretend to know what his was, but witnessing the voracity with which he serves, my guess is that it was pretty low.

Don't you understand? It will be the handling, storing, and possibly processing, the toxic waste from fracking that is going to provide those jobs from fracking that we have been promised. You can only have so many driving around in pick-up trucks overseeing unattended gas wells!

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About Me

born into poverty in Montreal. (1933 was a bad year to be born.) Kicked out of school in grade 11. Became factory hand, office boy.
Did a general BA, mostly at night at Sir George Williams University, and partly while a youth worker for YMCA, camps, etc. Then teacher training at McGill.
Taught gradea 7 to 11 for six years. Loved it.
Quit to do MA at Acadia, then PhD (History) at Queen's.
Taught history three years at UPEI, then some 35 years at Concordia U in Montreal.
Loved the teaching. Thought the profs had more pompous and useless asses among then than is really desirable outside a zoo.
work experience:
factory, office,social group work, office,camp director, teacher.
Radio - c. 3000 broadcasts, mostly current events.
TV - many hundred appearances, mostly commentaries.
Film - some writing, advising, voice-overs.
Writing - no count, some hundreds. Some academic, but mostly for popular market, and ranging from short stories to stories to newspaper and magazine columns to history books.
professional speaker - close to 2000.
Awards for the above? yep